The ability to create structurally sound, geometrically, optimal end-to-side connections (“anastomosis”) between blood vessels and synthetic blood vessel substitutes (“vascular grafts”) is one of the keys to therapeutic success in vascular surgery. Currently a vascular graft is usually anastomosed to a blood vessel by stitching them together. Creating anastomoses thus, though far from optimal, has stood the test of time. However the method is singularly unsuited for using a “minimally invasive” approach, such as for example laparoscopic surgery.
Over the years innumerable devices for creating end-to-side anastomoses without stitching have been disclosed in the patent literature including U.S. Pat. No. 2,127,903 (Bowen) U.S. Pat. No. 3,155,095 (Brown) U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,218 (Schmitt et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,926 (Suzuki) U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,586 (Mericle) U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,819 (Castor) U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,736 (Castor) U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,415 (Wozniak) U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,008 (Tretbar) U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,761 (Raible) WO 97/27898 (Evard et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,148 (Hardy, Jr. et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,236 (Healy) U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,029 (Patel) U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,001 (Taheri) U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,028 (Kapadia et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,499 (Lipatov et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,691 (Ehrenfeld) U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,908 (Chen) U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,289 (Jessen) U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,058 (Miller) U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,963 (Brinkerhoff et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,490 (Wilk et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,389 (Anderson) U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,352 (Hanson) U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,738 (Gustafson et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,739 (Jessen) U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,497 (Venbrux) U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,644 (Pietra□tta et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,712 (Maginot) WO 00/72764 (Stevens et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,714 (Owen) U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,635 (Sauer et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,902 (Raulerson) U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,849 (Yencho et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,748 (Manzo) U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,937 (Peterson), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,621 (Swanson et al.). However only two devices are commercially devices for anastomosing a vascular graft to a blood vessel: Spyder® (Medtronic) and AnastoClip® VCS™ (LeMaitre Vascular). Anastomosing with the Spyder® device is performed with small self-closing nitinol helices that mimic needle and thread. AnastoClips (previously marketed as “Vessel Closure System” [VCS]) are small titanium clips, which have to be manually placed meticulously one at a time to secure a vascular graft to a blood vessel. Thus, in the context of minimally invasive surgery, neither Spyder® nor AnastoClip® VCS™ represent a radical improvement over the conventional practice of manual stitching. Therefore a need still exists for a device for creating end-side anastomoses that is suitable for use during minimally invasive surgery.